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Saturday, March 29, 2014

Carrickfergus Castle excavation open day | March 29 2014 | in 3D

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External view of Carrickfergus Castle

The Centre for Archaeological Fieldwork, QUB have
been excavating at Carrickfergus Castle, Co. Antrim.They’ve been uncovering some of the 19th century
military aspects of the castle. In particular, they’ve traced the length of a
munitions tunnel where ordnance was off-loaded from ships and taken into the
castle for storage. So far they’ve found a number of narrow-gauge tracks, and a
turntable for moving this material around. In amongst the tightly-compacted
back-fill they’ve recovered numerous artefacts from earlier periods of the
castle’s occupation. The excavations are being directed by Ruairí Ó Baoill
author of, among other things, Hidden History Below Our Feet: The Archaeological Story of Belfast.

The Chapple family braved the rather nasty weather
today to go see the project. It was lovely to catch up with old friends and
former colleagues and see the results of all their hard work uncovering a
portion of the castle’s story that I know particularly little about. For the
benefit of those who couldn’t be there, but share an interest in Northern Irish
archaeology, I offer a few snaps, some rendered in 3D for your viewing pleasure. You’ll
need to buy a set of the red/blue kind (or make your own). If these are not to
your taste, I have selection of more traditional 2D panoramas: here.